The Sustainable Healthcare Unit is a regional resource hub created by healthcare professionals, for healthcare professionals.
We are clinicians, commissioners, pharmacists, nurses, and public health specialists across Kent and Medway who share a common belief: Great care should be accessible to all, and tools to improve it should be easy to find and use.
We recognise the growing demands on primary care, the widening gap in healthcare outcomes, and the real pressure on time, budgets, and workforce. Our mission is to create a practical, evidence-informed, and locally relevant space that enables frontline teams to deliver high-quality care consistently and sustainably.
At the heart of the sustainable healthcare unit is a commitment to reduce variation, tackle health inequalities, and promote best practice across our region.
We do this by:
Everything we produce is grounded in real clinical practice, local data, national policy, and frontline experience.
By working together we:
Whether you are a GP, pharmacist, nurse, practice manager, or primary care network (PCN) lead - your ideas, case studies, and local innovations can shape the future of care in our region.
We cannot achieve transformation alone. Improving population health and reducing inequalities requires collaboration at every level of care and your voice is critical.
The NHS Core20PLUS5 framework urges systems to focus on the most deprived 20 per cent of the population, with particular attention to five clinical priorities: CVD, respiratory disease, cancer, maternity, and mental health.
This site helps translate that national strategy into local action and we need your lived experience, insight, and contribution to do it well.
This section hosts live and recorded training webinars, regional showcases, and clinical masterclasses relevant to primary care professionals across Kent and Medway.
Clinicians engaging in regular continuing professional development (CPD) improve patient outcomes and service efficiency (RCGP, 2021). In primary care, rapid knowledge sharing through short, focused learning improves time-to-implementation for new guidance.
These live events are created for healthcare teams across Kent and Medway, offering a unique opportunity to connect, collaborate, and learn together.
All live events will be hosted via Microsoft Teams or Zoom, and are free for all NHS, social care, and voluntary sector staff working in Kent and Medway.
Once posted, registration will be managed through Eventbrite to streamline booking, reminders, and CPD attendance records. Just click the event link and follow the simple sign-up process.
Welcome to our growing library of recorded webinars and live event replays, created specifically for healthcare teams working across Kent and Medway.
Whether you missed the live session, want to revisit the key points, or are training new team members, this section gives you easy access to high-impact learning - anytime, anywhere.
All sessions are delivered by frontline experts, regional leaders, and improvement partners who understand your pressures, your population, and your local context.
Developed by Dr Michael Jackson, Specialist Cardiology Pharmacist, East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust
This free, structured course is designed for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to build confidence and competence in managing hypertension.
Created by Dr Michael Jackson, a leading cardiology and governance pharmacist in Kent and Medway, the course supports the delivery of evidence-based care aligned with NICE and Core20PLUS5 priorities.
Course overview
A curated suite of practical resources and "how-to" guides to help implement improvement initiatives in your service — designed to save you time and reduce unwarranted variation.
Many practices in England report variation in care delivery due to lack of implementation support. Toolkits improve speed and fidelity of service change.
This section contains locally adapted clinical protocols aligned to National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), NHS England, and Kent and Medway priorities.
Bite-sized project plans that help translate ideas into clear, time-bound actions for your practice or PCN.
Evaluating your own practice is one of the most effective ways to drive meaningful improvement. It helps you identify what's working, what needs refining, and where the greatest opportunities lie to enhance patient care.
Creating an action plan based on this evaluation translates insight into action. It provides structure, clear priorities, and a shared direction for your team — helping turn good intentions into measurable outcomes.
Evidence shows that teams who regularly reflect and plan together are 30 to 50 per cent more likely to implement and sustain quality improvements (The Health Foundation, 2021).
The NHS Long Term Plan emphasises proactive, planned care. Structured action plans increase delivery success by up to 80 per cent (NHS England, 2019).
Key benefits:
Answer the questionnaire providing as much detail as possible.
Health outcomes across Kent and Medway vary significantly by geography, ethnicity, deprivation, and access. At the SCHU, we are committed to helping practices and PCNs identify, understand, and act on inequalities - so that every patient receives fair and personalised care, no matter who they are or where they live.
In Kent and Medway, people living in the most deprived areas are three times more likely to die prematurely from preventable conditions such as CVD, diabetes complications, and respiratory disease.
We support healthcare professionals with tools, data, and implementation support to build fairer services:
40 per cent of primary care teams are unaware of parallel innovation in their ICS (King's Fund, 2021).
Stay up-to-date with news, service changes, pilot programmes and funding in Kent and Medway supported by SCHU.
Explore interactive data on long-term conditions, QOF, population health, and inequalities.
Data-led targeting improves uptake of long-term conditions (LTC) reviews in deprived populations.
Make it happen
Find improvement leads and mentors to support your project, share insights, or develop your team.
We would love to help you achieve your targets. Did you know that peer-led improvement increases adoption of new practices? Sounds like common sense yet many projects fail because they are undertaken in isolation.
SCHU team members can support you though the first steps of an improvement project.